The quarantine period for patients recovering from Covid-19 infection may need to be increased, according to a study from China.
Patients treated for mild infections in Beijing showed signs of continuing to carry the virus – and shed it – for up to eight days after the end of symptoms, according to the study, reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Doctors used PCR tests to check the viral status of 16 patients treated at the end of January. The patients had a median age of 35.
According to the analysis the patients suffered an incubation period of five days. The average length of experiencing symptoms was eight days – but patients remained contagious for periods of between one and eight days after recovering.
Patients experienced fever, cough, pharyngalgia and dyspnoea.
One of the researchers suggested that patients self-isolating at home should continue to stay isolated for two weeks after recovery.
Professor Lixin Xie, of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, said: "If you had mild respiratory symptoms from Covid-19 and were staying at home so as not to infect people, extend your quarantine for another two weeks after recovery to ensure that you don’t infect other people."
Fellow researcher Dr Lokesh Sharma, of Yale School of Medicine, USA, said: "The most significant finding from our study is that half of the patients kept shedding the virus even after resolution of their symptoms. More severe infections may have even longer shedding times."
Time Kinetics of Viral Clearance and Resolution of Symptoms in Novel Coronavirus Infection. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 23 March 2020
https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.202003-0524LE
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